Mobile devices (smart phones, portable digital assistants, portable gaming devices, laptops, cell phones, etc) may exchange messages or other content via a mobile data service. A mobile data service may be a messaging service, a mobile mail service, messaging subscription, or any service that creates a relationship between a mailbox and a mobile device. For example, a mobile data service may be used to send, receive, synchronize, or otherwise communicate emails between a mobile device and a mailbox. It will be understood that a mailbox may be a traditional email account, mail account, messaging account, social media account, instant messaging account, or any account (also referred to as a user account, subscription, profile, or user identity) that is associated with a bundle of communications directed to or from the account. For example, a mailbox may provide access to a group of email messages. In another example, a mailbox may be a storage for communications directed to or from an instant messaging account (e.g. an account for IM, ICQ, IRC, or other types of instant messaging platforms). A messaging server may provide coordination of communications in a mailbox for a variety of clients including a client application on a personal computer, a web browser, a mobile gateway or mobile device. A messaging server is not limited to managing data in the form of traditional messages, but may manage other content items different from traditional messages.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example system 100 which includes a mobile data service. In example system 100, a first mobile device 110 is utilizing a mobile data service 140 to send and receive messages. An implementation of a mobile data service may include a mobile gateway 150 configured to provide, communicate, exchange or synchronize messaging content, including but not limited to email messages, to, from, or between one or more mobile devices (e.g., 110, 111) and one or more mailboxes (e.g., 130, 131) on a messaging server 160. Each messaging content item is associated with at least one mailbox, e.g., 130, 131, 132 on messaging server 160. In an implementation of a mobile gateway 150, a first mobile device 110 is associated with a mobile gateway account, such as first gateway account 120 configured on the mobile gateway 150. For example, the mobile gateway account may comprise information about the mobile device, the user of the mobile device, or other configuration information for providing mobile data services to a mobile device. Other terms for mobile gateway account might include, without limitation: gateway account, mobile account, mobile subscription, gateway profile, gateway user, or other terms to refer to a configuration of account parameters associated with a client of a mobile gateway. The concept of an account in this disclosure may be unrelated to financial services. It will be understood that a “mobile gateway account” or “gateway account” in this disclosure may refer to a group of related resources, including configuration settings, other storage, software, services, and the like, that are managed or organized to implement or facilitate a mobile data service on a mobile gateway. Furthermore, a gateway account may be associated or configured with a unique gateway account identifier which may be used by the mobile gateway to identify the gateway account. A mobile gateway 150 may be configured to utilize gateway account settings (such as those that may be associated with first gateway account 120) to provide a first mobile device 110 with access to a first mailbox 130 on a messaging server 160.
A mobile gateway may store settings or configurations parameters associated with a gateway account in a gateway account database, or other storage accessible to the mobile gateway. For example, a mobile gateway account on a mobile gateway may comprise one or more configuration parameters that identify a mailbox associated with the mobile gateway account. Often the configuration of the mobile gateway account is managed at the mobile gateway, while configuration of the mailbox is managed at a separate system. For example, the mailbox may be associated with a separate account database or mailbox parameters on the messaging server. Consequently, when an error prevents a mobile device from accessing the mailbox via a mobile gateway, resolving the error may entail troubleshooting of the mobile data service.
Troubleshooting a problem with a mobile data service may be difficult or time consuming. For example, a troubleshooting process might include identifying a mobile gateway account associated with a mobile device and then checking a mobile gateway having the mobile gateway account for an indication of an error condition. Troubleshooting an error condition at the mobile gateway may involve accessing the mobile gateway to obtain a log file or other data, parsing the log file to identify an entry (if any) related to the mobile gateway account and interpreting the entry for clues as to the cause of the error. Troubleshooting a problem with a mobile data service using conventional troubleshooting processes is especially difficult when there are multiple mobile gateways and/or multiple mobile gateway accounts involved.
Accordingly, monitoring of relationships between mobile gateway accounts and mailboxes would assist in the troubleshooting and management of mobile data services.